Princess Kate and Prince William are reportedly stepping into new royal military roles and were given additional titles just days after Prince Harry’s “His Royal Highness” title was removed.
Kate, 41, has been dubbed the Commodore-in-Chief of the Fleet Air Arm, Colonel-in-Chief of the 1st Queen’s Dragoon Guards and Royal Honorary Air Commodore of Royal Air Force Coningsby, according to an announcement tweeted by Buckingham Palace on Friday, August 11. This is a milestone for Kate, as it is her first senior role in the Royal Air Force.
“Following His Majesty’s Accession, The King is pleased to announce further military appointments for working members of the Royal Family,” the palace’s Twitter message read. “The new appointments will continue to reflect the close relationship between the Armed Forces and the Royal Family in His Majesty’s reign.”
For his part, William, 41, has been appointed the Colonel-in-Chief, The Mercian Regiment; Colonel-in-Chief, The Army Air Corps; and Royal Honorary Air Commodore, Royal Air Force Valley. Others in the royal family have also been given new military titles, including Queen Consort Camilla, Princess Anne and Prince Edward.
Less than one week prior, Harry’s royal title was amended on the official royal family website. Harry, 38, and his wife Meghan Markle’s names were subsequently moved to the bottom of the site’s page underneath current working members of the royal family. Their names sit above Prince Andrew’s.
According to the family’s website description, the page “aims to provide an authoritative resource of information about the monarchy and royal family, past and present.”
Harry and Meghan, 42, stepped down from their royal duties in January 2020. Since then, however, Harry has reportedly been referred to as “HRH” on his family’s website. In addition to him, other royals have also been misidentified. The royal family’s website previously named Harry the youngest son of the Prince of Wales, which was Charles’ title before it went to William. Even Charles, 74, was mislabeled online and hadn’t been updated from his previous Prince of Wales title. Camilla, 76, was still named as the Duchess of Cornwall up until the website was changed.
Royal author Gareth Russell commented on the label changes, noting that Harry’s title removal wasn’t “necessarily a slight” to him.
“Part of it — without throwing too much shade in the general direction of the royal website — is that it is chaotically curated,” Gareth recently explained. “The royals no more update the website than the president of the U.S. would update the presidential website.”
Although Harry and Meghan left their royal positions in 2020, the couple have made headlines multiple times over the past three years. In March 2021, the couple dropped shocking allegations against the royal family during a television interview. The following year, the pair released their Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan, in which they detailed the tension between them and the royals. Earlier this year, Harry released his bombshell memoir, Spare.
While promoting his book, Harry sat down with Anderson Cooper for a 60 Minutes interview. As they rehashed some excerpts from his memoir, Harry emphasized that despite his claims against William, he and his brother “love each other.”
“I love him deeply,” Harry said. “There has been a lot of pain between the two of us, especially the last six years. None of anything I’ve written, anything that I’ve included is ever intended to hurt my family. But it does give a full picture of the situation as we were growing up, and also squashes this idea that somehow my wife was the one that destroyed the relationship between these two brothers.”
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